About Danielle
September 22,1994 - Febraury 2002
7 years old
Attended Creekside elementary located in
Sabre Springs, San Diego, California
Danielle's Parents
Brenda and Damon van Dam
Both smoke marijuana and have affairs

Night of disappearence
Feb. 1 , 2002
Danielle's mother was out partying with friends at a local bar. She reported that she say David Westerfield there.
Mother came home with friends around 2am, found one of her friends in bed with Damon (her husband).
Both eventually went to bed without checking on their kids.

David Westerfield
Born February 25, 1952
Successful, self-employed engineer
Owned a motor home
Lived 2 houses down from the van Dam's.
Divorced with 2 children in college.

Jan. 2 - Parentscalled Police that Danielle was missing
(Also missing is Westerfield with his RV)
Jan. 4 - Westerfield shows up at the Dry Cleaners with various items such as blankets, pillows, and a jacket.
Jan. 4 - Westerfield is put on 24 hour surveillance.
Jan. 5 - RV and other items get impounded to be tested on.
(Danielle's blood is found on his clothing and in the RV).
Jan. 22 - Westerfield is arrested for kidnapping Danielle.
Jan. 27 - Danielle's decomposed body is found around a dump on Dehasa Rd.

Forensic's Part

There were 3 entomologists working on this case, they stated that insects started showing up between Feb. 12 - Feb. 23.
Conviction

Danielle’s parents were both “swingers”. I’m not sure if that counts as having “affairs”.

The party was a “girls’ night out”. The partygoers consumed alcohol - apparently too much - and drew attention to themselves by behaving in a sexually provocative way (as they had the previous Friday), they even invited strangers home for sex (but those invitations were declined). And Danielle’s mother didn’t just see Westerfield at the bar, there was also some interaction between them.

Brenda’s friend was not IN the bed with Damon, she was merely ON the bed while Damon was IN the bed.

The January dates should of course be February. Those dates show how quickly the police decided he was the culprit, even though he had no criminal history and often went on trips in his motor home.

Westerfield was “missing” at the time Danielle was reported missing (Saturday morning) because he had just left home, but he returned home that afternoon (looking for his wallet), and was back at home early Monday morning after his weekend trip. And both the van Dams and a neighbor had his business card, so the police could have phoned him while he was away.

He had stopped off at the dry cleaners on his way home. It was pillow cases he handed in, not pillows. And cleaning of the blankets had been pre-planned, as this was the off season for camping.

One small and faint stain of Danielle’s blood was reported found on his jacket (even though the dry cleaners didn’t see it), and one drop on his RV carpet (it wasn’t photographed or measured). So did those stains actually exist?

Danielle’s body wasn’t “decomposed”, it was still decomposing, and the degree of decomposition was only moderate, pointing to a shorter PMI (time since death).

Three entomologist testified for the defense, and the given dates are the combined dates they calculated. In addition, one entomologist testified for the prosecution: his dates were February 9 to 14. The entomology evidence is important because insects normally show up within hours of death. The latest Westerfield could have killed Danielle and dumped her body was very early on February 4, so the insects should have showed up on that day at the latest. So these dates exclude Westerfield as the culprit. Even the prosecution’s entomologist excluded him.